Antony asks for focused defence spending

With sluggish economy putting in limbo its demand for additional funds, the Defence Ministry on Wednesday asked the three services to have a more “focused” approach towards acquisition especially towards the critical projects and plans that have a direct bearing on their “operational preparedness”.

 

 

Many of the modernization projects – artillery and fighter jets procurement – is moving at a snail pace and the huge capital expenditure earmarked for the current fiscal remains largely unspent. The projections made by Antony in his reply during budget session in Rajya Sabha were found to be way off the mark in the review, sources revealed. 

The delay in Indigenous Aircraft carrier (IAC), slow progress of border roads projects in Arunachal, highly unsatisfactory progress of ordinance factories and defence PSUs are said to be the main reasons for the state of present affairs in the defence expenditure, sources said. To set right the course and exhaust the 1,93,000 crores of defence budget, out which around Rs. 80,000 crores were allocated for modernization and acquisition projects, Antony has asked the officials to conducts series of separate review meetings about the projects and plans having direct linkages with the “operational preparedness”. 

Earlier, the MoD had projected an additional budgetary requirement of Rs. 50,000 crore for the year 2012-13. During the budget announcement itself, Antony had made it known that the amount was 15.5 percent less than the estimated requirement of the services. Antony announced that as per projections his ministry needed Rs. 2,39,123 crores in total and thus they will require an additional amount of Rs 45,716 crores.

“The budget estimates were given in accordance with the assessment of the new emerging threat perception from neighbouring countries and the forces required it to meet the new challenges. However, with the other ministries facing cut, the defence ministry is afraid that the inability to finish the defence budget would lead to a cut in the next budget,” sources said.

In the ongoing financial year, the Defence Ministry is expected to conclude the largest open tenders to buy 126 medium multi-role fighter aircraft at an estimated value of Rs. 48,000 crore along with scores of other multi-billion dollar tenders for artillery, helicopters and warships reaching final stages. However, majority of these projects have been delayed due to slow acquisition processes and the losing vendors trying to put spoke in the process by citing irregularities in the deal.

In comparison to the defence budget of Rs.1.70 lakh crore in 2011-12, this year Indian defence budget was 13.15 percent higher at Rs 1.93 lakh crore, out of which Rs. 79, 579 crore was to be spent on purchase of new weapons and platforms.  The hike though considerable as per the Indian standards will be no match to the country’s eastern neighbor. China’s increased budget has continued to cause concern in India. According to Pentagon’s South Asian Defence and Strategic Year Book China’s total military spending has increased by 189 percent between 2001 and 2010, an average annual increase of 12.5 percent. As per data, China is the second largest spender of defence after the US and India comes at position 9.

Chinese Navy gets its first aircraft carrier, a cause of concern for the Indian Navy?

The Chinese Navy has inducted its aircraft carrier earlier this week (September 25). The Indian Navy, which claims an edge over its Chinese counterpart owing to its long maritime legs and long history of seamanship, is closely watching the development.

A Chinese Warship during a joint exercise with the Indian Navy this year

The PLA Navy has been planning to enter the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) sometime in 2015 only. However, the increased piracy in the Gulf of Aden provided it with an opportunity to deploy its warships for longer durations in the international water and learn the international best practices by closely coordinating with the foreign navies. Buoyed by this the Chinese Navy inducted its first aircraft carrier named Liaoning in its fleet. The announcement was finally made by the Defence Ministry of China through website of PLA.

The Soviet-vintage aircraft carrier has been named after a northeast province of China. PLA navy has indicated that the ship is likely to be used for training purposes only. 

"The entry into the ranks of this aircraft carrier will raise the level of modernization of China's overall naval operational forces," defence ministry said. The Liaoning will help "effectively protect national sovereignty, security and development interests" it was officially announced. 

The Indian Navy is monitoring the situation, but maintains there is nothing alarming in it. As put by the skipper of the Indian Navy's lone aircraft carrier INS Viraat: "See you cannot reach a great power status in 10-15 days. Navies are made over centuries. You have to keep building them for over years and they are a costly proposition. So any navy aspiring to operate carriers will be envious of countries operating them. Naval aviation is a great skill and it takes 25 years to hone it. Once you build this capability you cannot do away with it."

However, what worries the Indian Navy is the unforeseen delay in the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier indigenous aircraft carrier programme followed by trial problem in the Russian-built Admiral Gorshkov. In both the cases the delivery dates have been pushed back, which by conservative estimates mean that India will get its new aircraft carrier only by early 2014. 

The voyage of Varyag - the written off Soviet Navy aircraft carrier from the 1980s - to the Chinese Navy's Liaoning is one that of a determination of the eastern neighbour to find its maritime legs at the earliest. The construction of Varyag had started in 1980s and its construction stopped in 1992 after the disintegration of the USSR. It remained in the Ukrainian shipyard unfinished until 1998 when a Macau-based Chinese company bought it for US$20 million. In March 2002, the vessel was towed to the Dalian Shipyard in northern China after an arduous sea voyage spanning months. Since then the warship has been stationed there for refurbishment.

 

Russia to demand more money for Admiral Gorshkov

The memory of the steep price escalation by Russians for the aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov was still fresh in the memories of Indian defence authorities, and the latest snags experienced during the trials of the flat top carrier indicates that Moscow will up the price for warship once more.
 

The issue is expected to be at the forefront when Russian Defence Minister Anatoly E Serdyukov visits India next month. The Russians have informed about the glitches during the sea trials of the 44,570 tonnes Kiev class aircraft carrier, rechristened as INS Vikramaditya literally meaning “Brave as Sun”, to the Indian Defence Ministry.

Sources informed The New Indian Express that the Russians are building up case for another price hike for the second hand warship. “The Russians are claiming that it was the Indian Navy that insisted on bricks insulation for the boilers rather than the traditional asbestos coating and would therefore claim more in the name of dry dock maintenance,” added the sources.
 

The Indian Navy’s aim to operate two functional aircraft carriers at a given time suffered a second setback when after 90 days of sailing in the Barent Sea seven of the eight boilers of the warship did not function at its maximum power limit. According to the widely read Russian daily “Kommersant”, the seven boilers were damaged during the trial delaying the delivery of the warship by a year.

The Indian Navy, however, contended that the contract provides for leeway of 3-4 months in case of delay in delivery but beyond that the provisions call for imposing penalty if its delayed beyond it.

The acquisition of Admiral Gorshkov has been full of the price escalation saga. Offered as a gift to the Indian Navy in the beginning, the Russians had used the warship to arm-twist the Indian government to cough up more money that was used to bail out the cash-strapped Sevmash shipyard.  The contract was signed in 2004 for a package deal of $1.5 billion that included $974 million for its refit and the rest for the 16 MiG-29 K fighter jets. The initial delivery date was in 2008.

However project hit the headlines in 2007 when Russia said that it will not be able to meet its initial deadline of 2008 and pushed it back to 2010 and demanded upped the price to $2.9 billion. After years of strenuous price re-negotiations the deal was re-inked at $2.33 billion in 2010 and December 2012 was fixed as the delivery time.

However, the recent development indicates that the leviathan is going to miss its deadline once again.
 

Earlier, the indigenous aircraft carrier project suffered a two years delay when truck carrying important equipment met an accident. Both the aircraft carrier are crucial for the Indian Navy’s policy to gain maritime advantage in the Indian Ocean Region – spread from Gulf of Aden in the east to Malacca Strait in the west – as the force envisages to have one aircraft carrier each for its two coasts.

Indigenous aircraft carrier to be delivered in 2018 only

The Defence  Ministry accepted three-year delay in the construction of the indigenous aircraft carrier.

File Photo of INS Viraat, the lone aircraft carrier of the Indian Navy

This is the written statement made by Defence Minister AK Antony  in the Parliament-

"There has been a slippage in the construction schedule of the indigenous aircraft carrier (approximately 37,500 Metric Tons displacement) being built at Cochin Shipyard Limited, Kochi.

The complexity of the project and this being the first ship of its kind being built in India has led to timelines being extended. AS per the Phase-I Contract concluded with M/s. Cochin Shipyard Limited, Kochi, the first launch of the ship was envisaged in October, 2010. However, due to delays in receipt of steel plates and pre-launch equipment like diesel alternators and gearboxes, the launch of the ship is now expected in 2013. Delivery of the ship is presently envisaged in 2018."